Aixtron Se

Eugenus, Inc.

Miguel Angel Saldana

Niloy Mukherjee

Stephen E Savas

M Ziaul Karim

Subramanian Tamilmani

Hae Young Kim

Alex Finkelman

Dan Lester Cossentine

Stephen Edward Savas

The disclosed technology relates generally to semiconductor processing and more particularly to liquid precursor injection apparatus and methods for depositing thin films. A method of injecting a liquid precursor into a thin film deposition chamber comprises delivering a vaporized liquid precursor into the thin film deposition chamber by atomizing the liquid precursor into atomized precursor droplets using a liquid injection unit and vaporizing the atomized precursor droplets into the vaporized liquid precursor in a vaporization chamber. The liquid injector unit and the liquid precursor are such that operating the liquid precursor delivery unit under a lower stability condition, including a first liquid precursor temperature at the liquid injection unit, a first liquid precursor pressure upstream of the liquid precursor injection unit and a first gas pressure downstream of the liquid precursor injection unit, causes a mass flow rate of the liquid precursor to vary by more than 10% relative to an average mass flow rate of the liquid precursor during a first time duration. Delivering the vaporized liquid precursor into the thin film deposition chamber comprises operating the liquid precursor delivery unit under a higher stability condition. The higher stability includes one or more of: a second liquid precursor temperature at the liquid injection unit that is lower than the first liquid temperature; a second liquid pressure upstream of the injection unit that is higher than the first liquid pressure; and a second gas pressure downstream of the liquid injection unit that is higher than the first Gas pressure. The higher stability is such that that the mass flow rate of the liquid precursor varies by less than 10% relative to an average mass flow rate during a second time duration having the same time duration as the first time duration.

Liquid precursor injection for thin film deposition

During a pre-treat process, hydrogen plasma is used to remove contaminants (e.g., oxygen, carbon) from a surface of a wafer. The hydrogen plasma may be injected into the plasma chamber via an elongated injector nozzle. Using such elongated injector nozzle, a flow of hydrogen plasma with a significant radial velocity flows over the wafer surface, and transports volatile compounds and other contaminant away from the wafer surface to an exhaust manifold. A protective liner made from crystalline silicon or polysilicon may be disposed on an inner surface of the plasma chamber to prevent contaminants from being released from the surface of the plasma chamber. To further decrease the sources of contaminants, an exhaust restrictor made from silicon may be employed to prevent hydrogen plasma from flowing into the exhaust manifold and prevent volatile compounds and other contaminants from flowing from the exhaust manifold back into the plasma chamber.

Method and apparatus for surface preparation prior to epitaxial deposition

Growing community of inventors

Santa Cruz, CA, United States of America

Miguel Angel Saldana